Hopefully this week I’ll be able to get another of my “hiking stories” posted and another book review up. Until then, here are some gems from my recent reading so that the first thing you see coming to this blog isn't that "half-nekked" picture of me.
"[H]e was trying to hurt God, and if he was trying to hurt God he must believe in Him. He had experienced the truth of what he had been taught long ago, that blasphemy proved one’s belief in God."
-Lydia Davis, “The Center of the Story” in Almost No Memory
"I like the West for its difficulties."
-Lydia Davis, “The Professor, in Almost No Memory
"Travel is sort of a revenge for having been put on hold."
-Paul Theroux, Dark Star Safari
“This is wrong. It is unconstitutional. It is un-American."
-Senator Leahy on the Senate passing legislation denying constitutional rights for suspected terrorist detainees as quoted in the Huffington Post.
"This was The Great American Flood; it had been a sign unto all men, the preachers said, and woe unto the land if it were not heeded. The steel town had been a sin town and so the Lord had destroyed it… It was a line of reasoning which many people were quick to accept, for at least it made some sense of the disaster. But it was a line of reasoning which met with much amusement in Johnstown, where, as anyone who knew his way about could readily see, Lizzie Thompson’s house and several rival establishments on Green Hill had not only survived the disaster, but were going stronger than ever before. 'If punishment was God’s purpose,' said on survivor, 'He sure had bad aim.'"
-David McCullough, The Johnstown Flood
"We think we know what struck us, and it was not the hand of Providence. Our misery is the work of man.”
-George Swank as quoted by David McCullough in The Johnstown Flood
“Modern industries are handling the forces of nature on a stupendous scale… Woe to the people who trust those powers to the hands of fools.”
-John Wesley Powell as quoted by David McCullough in The Johnstown Flood
"If you’re not electing Christians, then in essence you are going to legislate sin."
- An outrageous comment that I'm not even sure what it means, made by Representative Katherine Harris who is running for the Senate as a Republican in Florida, as quoted in Christianity Today
When out-of-town visitors would compliment us on our town’s cleanliness, we would swell with pride as if we ourselves had swept up the trash the dogs had scattered. Doc did what all good people do—made the rest of us look better than we really were.
-Philip Gulley, Front Porch Tales
I guess topless Sage had to end sometime. *sigh*
ReplyDeleteI now view cerebral Sage in a slightly different light though. >:-)
This David McCullough sounds like he might be a fantastic writer.
ReplyDeleteMurf, I wasn't going to let it go on for too long.
ReplyDeleteTim, He's a great writer--he wrote the very popular biography on John Adams and 1776 as well as books about the Panama Canal and Lewis and Clark. The book on the Johnston Flood is one of his earlier books--published in the late 60s.
"If you’re not electing Christians, then in essence you are going to legislate sin."
ReplyDelete- An outrageous comment....."
I wonder what she says about that sleazebag politico from Florida who was found to be fond of young boys; the pages in DC? And furthermore, what does she say about the fact that some Republicans in Congress knew about his preferences and did nothing to stop him?
I think it's probably safe to say that everyone, no matter what political party they belong to, knew that this was going on and I doubt Mark is the only one that does it. If you read the emails that were released, there's really not much there. He could have easily continued his 'I was just mentoring him' fascade. I've asked Sage for a picture of him with his hat on. Does that mean I want to have sex with him? Not necessarily.
ReplyDeleteSorry, Sage. ;-)
Kenju, it would be interesting to know what she'd say. And it's pretty disgusting that people knew and didn't do anything about his interest in underage pages. In many settings, where you have mandatory reporting of child abuse, the "quiet ones" would also be guilty.
ReplyDeleteMurf, You're going to make me regret that photo yet! You may be right that there is a lot of inappropriate behavior going on in Washington, but that still doesn't make it right. But asking an underage kid about his arousal status or suggesting he’d like to undress him is inappropriate.
Before you pull a Suzie on me, when I left that comment, I was just referring to the current (at the time) hullabaloo which was primarily just the emails.
ReplyDeleteSage, I haven't read anything by Kafka since college. Should it?
ReplyDelete